(This is an entry in the Annotated Bibliography.)
Ewing, Elizabeth. Everyday Dress 1650-1900. London: B. T. Batsford Ltd., 1984.
While this book dates from a somewhat dated period of costume research, having been published in 1984, it seems like a valuable resource for images of, as the title states, “everyday dress.” There are period cartoons, drawings, and photographs, as well as images of extant garments, illustrating the differences between high fashion extremes and the clothing worn by ordinary people. I have not read the entire text, but would recommend viewing it skeptically, as there appear to be few direct citations or references, and costume history books from this period tend to rely heavily on generalizations and hearsay. Nevertheless, this book, which appears in many library collections, is valuable as a source of information, especially images, of ordinary clothing, on ordinary people, which can be difficult to find, especially going farther back in time. It is not instructional. It has monochrome images, which are plentiful. It contains a select bibliography.
